Monster Hunter World: Iceborne's endgame is all about hunting. Hunting, hunting, and more hunting. Hunting until your thumbs hurt. Hunting until you've got the biggest, baddest weapon of them all. In this guide, we're going to go over what Monster Hunter World: Iceborne's endgame asks of you. What it is, how it works, and how best to approach it.

This guide does not contain story-related spoilers for Monster Hunter World: Iceborne, but it does detail the gameplay that you can expect after the credits roll. If you're cool with that, then read on!

Monster Hunter World: Iceborne Endgame - What Is It?

What is the endgame for Monster Hunter World: Iceborne? Well, the bottom line is that the endgame allows you to craft the very best weapons in Iceborne, and some pretty great armour sets, too. Iceborne's endgame features an entirely new location and a number of new monsters that you don't encounter during the expansion's main story.

The Guiding Lands

The Guiding Lands is the new location that opens up once you've beaten Iceborne's story. It is the game's largest environment overall, and it's made up of different ecosystems all smashed together. There's a forest region, a desert region, a coral region, and a rotten region all in one map. Multiple "neutral" zones connect these regions.

You can explore the Guiding Lands with up to three other players, and there is no time limit, much like a normal expedition.

What's the point of the Guiding Lands?

In the Guiding Lands, you can encounter any and every monster in Monster Hunter World. Monsters spawn at random, and spend a specific amount of time in the Guiding Lands before they leave. Engaging monsters in combat makes them stay longer. Up to three monsters can be active in the Guiding Lands at any one time.

Monsters that spawn in the Guiding Lands drop exclusive materials, and they drop a lot of them. These materials are mostly used to augment your Master Rank weapons, transforming them into the game's most effective equipment. Again, the materials that you find in the Guiding Lands cannot be found anywhere else.

The Guiding Lands also plays host to special mining outcrops and bonepiles. These materials are also necessary for augmenting your weapons.

How do the Guiding Lands work?

So how do the Guiding Lands actually work in Monster Hunter World: Iceborne? Below, we're going to break down the main points that you need to know.

The Guiding Lands Region Levels

In the Guiding Lands, each region (forest, desert, coral, and rotten) has a level. As these levels increase, rarer, more powerful monsters start to appear, including tempered monsters that have their own unique materials. A region's level increases as you hunt monsters.

However, region levels decrease over time if you haven't been fighting monsters from that region. Region levels do not reset after leaving the Guiding Lands.

Increasing the Region Level cap

You can increase the Guiding Lands region level cap by completing assigned Master Rank quests that are unlocked when you reach certain Master Rank thresholds. For example, at Master Rank 69, you get an assigned quest. Complete it, and the Guiding Lands region level cap will increase from 5 to 6. This allows even more powerful monsters to appear in the Guiding Lands.

And yes, slaying monsters in the Guiding Lands does contribute to increasing your Master Rank.

Luring out specific monsters in the Guiding Lands

If you want to hunt a specific monster in the Guiding Lands, you can lure it out. While exploring the Guiding Lands, you may trigger an "analysis" when inspecting monster tracks or fighting a monster. As you continue to explore and fight, the analysis meter located on the right of the screen will level up. When the meter is full, a monster will be added to a list of monsters that you can lure. The type of monster that is being analysed is hinted at next to the meter. It might read "Fanged Wyvern", or "Brute Wyvern", or even "Elder Dragon".

Once an analysis is complete, talk to the Handler at a Guiding Lands camp. You can then select the monster that you wish to lure from a list. The monster should then soon appear in the Guiding Lands.

Making use of mining outcrops and bonepiles in the Guiding Lands

Special mining outcrops and bonepiles are scattered throughout the Guiding Lands. All of them yield materials that can only be found in the Guiding Lands. Mining outcrops and bonepiles contain different materials depending on the region that they're in. For example, in the forest region, you'll find different bones to the ones that you find in the desert region.

In order to find rarer mining outcrop and bonepile materials, you need to keep harvesting. The more mining outcrops and bonepiles that you interact with, the more chance you have of larger, or "giant" mining outcrops and bonepiles appearing. Bigger and more extravagant mining outcrops and bonepiles have a better chance of dishing out rarer materials, with giant ones guaranteed to give an extremely rare item.

When a giant mining outcrop or bonepile appears, you'll get a message to the right of the screen confirming that one has spawned. You'll be able to find this harvesting point in your current region, so be sure to take a look around.

There's a lot of information to take in when it comes to Iceborne's endgame and the Guiding Lands. As such, we've squashed everything together into one handy summary. Below, you can find the whole endgame process broken down into a number of simplified steps.

Depart for the Guiding Lands from the quest board or from the expedition screen.

Gather tracks and hunt monsters to increase region levels.

Harvest mining outcrops and bonepiles whenever you see them to increase chances of rarer materials.

Will you be grinding your way through the Guiding Lands in Monster Hunter World: Iceborne's endgame? Be sure to check out our other Monster Hunter World: Iceborne guides and let us know what you'll be slaying in the comments section below.

Robert's been a dedicated PlayStation fan since the days of Tekken 2, and he still loves a good dust up. When he's not practising combos, he's usually getting lost in the latest 100-hour RPG, or, y'know, replaying The Witcher 3.

@Erufuda Definitely not as tedious as the Elder Dragon investigations. You just keep hunting monsters at your own pace until the analysis is done. It's a much better system because you're actually being rewarded along the way.